primitives discuss living in small towns

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018651627

Oh my.

And it's interesting, how quickly the worm keeps turning on Skins's island, the primitives leaping from one area of concern to another in a split-second; right now, the topic de jour's about some recently-deceased long-ago television celebrity.

Kaleva (13,359 posts)    Mon Aug 11, 2014, 10:46 PM

You know you live in a small town when...

a concerned citizen posts on Facebook asking if anyone knows whose pig is that running loose in town. In responses to the post, it is made known that the pig has been caught and was brought to the local animal shelter.
 
You know you live in a small town when the village employee drives the town's Ford tractor thru your yard and the neighbors yards as he stops at the homes to read the water meters. His excuse was that his ATV four wheeler, which is what he usually drove on our yards with, had a flat.

edgineered (647 posts)    Tue Aug 12, 2014, 12:06 AM

1. The headline in block letters

of the local paper (before Facebook) read: POT FOUND IN KITCHEN FIRE

We knew we were in BFE and laughed, until learning that Charlie got busted for it!

mackerel (2,218 posts)    Tue Aug 12, 2014, 12:14 AM

2. When you know at least half the people your sister is talking about

when she tells you about her AA meetings and she doesn't even use their last names.

alarimer (12,723 posts)    Tue Aug 12, 2014, 08:44 AM

5. When the front page of the paper highlights the hiring of a new librarian.

It wasn't in the town I live in, but in a community nearby, whose paper only comes out once a week.

Kaleva (13,359 posts)    Tue Aug 12, 2014, 09:07 AM

6. When the front page of the paper highlights the death of the oldest cow in the county

When I was in the Navy, I subscribed to the local weekly paper to keep up with the news.
 
I should have kept that copy. My shipmates got a big kick out of that one.

Baitball Blogger (17,484 posts)    Tue Aug 12, 2014, 12:03 PM

9. Small towns have the best obituaries.

Creative writing along with a real understanding of the person they're writing about.

pipi_k (19,744 posts)    Tue Aug 12, 2014, 10:45 AM

7. My town is so small

that the Police Department, electric department, (only) voting venue, Senior center, mini-theater, and town offices are in the same building.
 
For real.

Despite its quirks, it still beats living in a squalid, dirty, crowded big place, though.

[Carl]

People who can`t figure out how to set an alarm clock without a government agency mocking those that the food and much of the essential raw materials for living.

[Wineslob]

So, most of the DUmmies are living in Fly-Over country?   

[Dori]

I love small towns.

My grandparents used to live in a place that had one general store that also served as the post office, a candy-notions and drug store, a gas station, an empty bank building full of feed, and five churches. 

[JohnnyReb]

What DUmmies really hate about small towns is that everyone knows they're drug popping, government tit sucking, deadbeats.

[CollectivismMustDie]

So, most of the DUmmies are living in Fly-Over country?   

Most of the DUmmies don't define "small town" quite the same as the rest of us do, I think. In fact, I suspect many if not most of them would call Kearney NE a small town. What comes to mind when I hear the phrase, is unincorporated towns of between 5 and maybe 150 people. Granted, "small" doesn't mean "unincorporated", necessarily. Somehow, I doubt many of them would live in unincorporated areas though, because most of them wouldn't know how to survive without government services in areas where people aren't shy about shooting when others try to rob them.

CMD

[delilahmused]

Most of the DUmmies don't define "small town" quite the same as the rest of us do, I think. In fact, I suspect many if not most of them would call Kearney NE a small town. What comes to mind when I hear the phrase, is unincorporated towns of between 5 and maybe 150 people. Granted, "small" doesn't mean "unincorporated", necessarily. Somehow, I doubt many of them would live in unincorporated areas though, because most of them wouldn't know how to survive without government services in areas where people aren't shy about shooting when others try to rob them.

CMD

That's not what I think of when I think of a small town. 5 people is a ghost town. The town I live just outside of (just a few miles down the road, really but it's where the farms are) has around 1000 people. We have one stoplight, one tiny store with ridiculously high prices, a gas station and as many churches as bars. People are friendly and and many know each other by their first names. We have a rural fire department that has to cover several small communities, 2 mills (out of the dozen or so destroyed by the misguided spotted owl fiasco) a city hall and a county sheriff's office, though they're never there. We do have quite a few community events each year.

Edited to add: And the liquor store. It's a combination liquor store and video rental store. Mostly DVD's but you can still rent VHS too.

Cindie

[Carl]

What they hate about their stereotype small town is that people actually get along for the most part,live and let live while working everyday to make their way through life.

Simple and basic concepts but like holy water on a demon to a liberal.

[SVPete]

People who can`t figure out how to set an alarm clock without a government agency mocking those that the food and much of the essential raw materials for living.

I think you omitted a word or two, but spot on! These folks say they are "for" "the people", but mock the real people who produce their food, grow the cotton and wool (or drill the oil,  ) for their clothes make the materials for their homes, build their homes, etc..

The "SV" in my forum name stands for Silicon Valley, and I've lived here for over 35 years. However, the first 18 years of my life I lived about 6 miles from a town that grew from about 10K to about 25K in that time. My peers were the sons and daughters of farmers and of small business people who put food on the tables of mocking fools like this.

[thundley4]

I think you omitted a word or two, but spot on! These folks say they are "for" "the people", but mock the real people who produce their food, grow the cotton and wool (or drill the oil,  ) for their clothes make the materials for their homes, build their homes, etc..

The "SV" in my forum name stands for Silicon Valley, and I've lived here for over 35 years. However, the first 18 years of my life I lived about 6 miles from a town that grew from about 10K to about 25K in that time. My peers were the sons and daughters of farmers and of small business people who put food on the tables of mocking fools like this.

The grade school and high school that I went to was surrounded by corn and soybean fields. I now live in a town of about 70+K and there are farm fields in the city limits.

[Jasonw560]

I grew up in a town of 8K. Mostly farm and ranch folks. Or associated with agriculture in some way. Most everyone knew everyone else. Where I went to church was 5 miles away in a town with literally no stoplights.

Directly to the south of me is a field of beautiful white cotton. And to the NE are sugar cane, grain, and cotton fields. The town I live near has about 70K popkation or so.

[franksolich]

Ah, Hell, what are you guys talking about, cities of several tens of thousands being "small towns"?

<<<lives 42 miles away from the 5th largest city in Nebraska.....population 23,000.

That's "big city."

Around here, a "small town" is 100 people or less.

[thundley4]

Ah, Hell, what are you guys talking about, cities of several tens of thousands being "small towns"?

<<<lives 42 miles away from the 5th largest city in Nebraska.....population 23,000.

That's "big city."

Around here, a "small town" is 100 people or less.

Where I grew up was called a village and it included lots of area farms and had a population of 1200. No stop lights, one gas station/general store, and two churches.

[franksolich]

Where I grew up was called a village and it included lots of area farms and had a population of 1200. No stop lights, one gas station/general store, and two churches.

I'm not sure of Nebraska definitions by legal statute, but the town near here is 1500 people, and it's officially described as a "city."

"Village" is used too, but I have no idea how many makes a village.

Probably it depends more upon its governance than its population, what it's called.

I remember from sociology classes in college that 500 was considered the "ideal size" for any human community (that was about the "average size" for Native American tribes, too) to function at its social best (less crime, deviance, whatnot), because apparently about 500 people is the maximum number of people one can get to know intimately, virtues and flaws.

[njpines]

I grew up in a town of about 3k. Believe me, in NJ, that's tiny. It's an old town with a lot of Victorian homes (mine wasn't but was built in 1915 by my grandfather) and still uses the original gas lit street lamps. We all knew everyone. It was idyllic.

[franksolich]

I grew up in a town of about 3k. Believe me, in NJ, that's tiny. It's an old town with a lot of Victorian homes (mine wasn't but was built in 1915 by my grandfather) and still uses the original gas lit street lamps. We all knew everyone. It was idyllic.

Three thousand's about the size of both towns where I spent my childhood and my adolescence (3,500 and 3,300 respectively, at the time).

The difference was, the first town was alongside the Platte River, and there were towns of the same size, spaced about ten miles apart, along the river.  The second town was way out in the middle of nowhere, all alone.

Although similar in size, totally different "cultures."  The childhood town was pretty ancient, having been founded circa 1867.  In the teenage-years town, the oldest building there bore a cornerstone "MCMXI," and I used to equate it with Stonehenge or the the Great Pyramids, it was so old.

[JohnnyReb]

I grew up in the country but the nearest town was 2 blocks long with the courthouse on the north end and the post office on the south end.

Out in the country back then at every major crossroad was a country store and the center of a community that had a name.

[Gina]

mackerel (2,218 posts)    Tue Aug 12, 2014, 12:14 AM

2. When you know at least half the people your sister is talking about

when she tells you about her AA meetings and she doesn't even use their last names.

SO much for that anonymity.  Has his sister not read the damn www.aa.org handbook?

http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-47_understandinganonymity.pdf

Q. What should I tell my loved ones about protecting
the anonymity of the A.A. members they
may meet?

A. Explain that anonymity is extremely important
to A.A. members. Each A.A. member decides if
and when to share aspects of his or her recovery,
and with whom.

 

[Wineslob]

Most of the DUmmies don't define "small town" quite the same as the rest of us do, I think. In fact, I suspect many if not most of them would call Kearney NE a small town. What comes to mind when I hear the phrase, is unincorporated towns of between 5 and maybe 150 people. Granted, "small" doesn't mean "unincorporated", necessarily. Somehow, I doubt many of them would live in unincorporated areas though, because most of them wouldn't know how to survive without government services in areas where people aren't shy about shooting when others try to rob them.

CMD

I'm in a town of around 25K or so, kinda huge, eh? . At one time the media and the DUmmies used the term "Fly Over" as a derogatory term for the mid-west, yet, there they are.

[DUmpsterDiver]

Any town where you can't p1ss off your front porch and fire weapons off your back deck is too crowded.

[Gina]

Any town where you can't p1ss off your front porch and fire weapons off your back deck is too crowded.

I AGREE!  I grew up in a very small town. Great frigging public schools, no crime except for the teens screwing up your mailbox with a bat.  Then the city above got sick of their cancerous citizens and started moving to our area.  Now that small town has gone to shit.   

I live in the suburbs now and whenever my youngest son comes back from grinny's I have to break him from peeing outside    Here's this little 3 yr old with his pants down in my front yard pissing for the passing cars 

[El Jefe]

Lots of mentions of Nebraska in this thread. I grew up just outside of Alma Nebraska (Go Cardinals!) We now live in central Missouri. Once a town gets past about 10,000 in population is goes down hill fast.

 

[CollectivismMustDie]

What they hate about their stereotype small town is that people actually get along for the most part,live and let live while working everyday to make their way through life.

Simple and basic concepts but like holy water on a demon to a liberal.

Well said, Carl. Hi-5.

CMD

[RobJohnson]

DUmmies hate small towns because everyone recognizes them while waiting in line for free cheese.

[CollectivismMustDie]

A large part of their hatred of "flyover country" is that schools in flyover country are less likely to be liberal indoctrination camps.

And parents out here tend to get involved, quite often calling out loony nonsense for what it is when the occasional indigenous lefty or (more frequently) lefty transplant tries to push it.

They despise people who are not under their influence, and everything that enables or contributes to it.


CMD